Straight From the Headlines! What Everyone was Talking About This Week

It’s another Friday again, the last one in the month of September!

Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us at Bellanaija.com. We hope you’ve had an interesting month. We are glad to see you here at the Straight From The Headlines slot where we recap major stories that have graced our headlines this week.

There has been a mix of good, bizarre, shocking and simply ridiculous stories making the headlines across the country this week.

We hope you have an interesting time reading through the news summary we’ve brought to you and we wish you success in all your endeavours!

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Sahara Reporters released a shocking report claiming that the First Lady of Nigeria, Patience Jonathan is battling Parkinson’s disease in Germany. According to the report, she “is battling an onset of Parkinson’s disease that has complicated her recovery from a surgical procedure in Germany”. Sources to Sahara Reporters disclosed that “Mrs. Jonathan had battled Parkinson’s for some years now. In addition, doctors had advised her to do something urgent about her morbid body mass index (BMI). The source added that “Mrs. Jonathan had indeed considered undergoing the kind of tummy tuck procedure that former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha once had.”

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For the first time in six years, a remarkable improvement has been recorded in the results of the Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) released by the National Examinations Council (NECO). The results as released by the NECO’s Registrar, Professor Promise Okpala, revealed that over 50 per cent of the over 1 million candidates that sat for the core subjects of English language, Mathematics, Economics and Biology got credit passes and above. This is against the persistent and dismal 20 per cent recorded in the last five years.

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A 65-year old grandmother, who is also a mother of six, was on Wednesday arrested for alleged drug trafficking. NDLEA said the suspect, Hassan Fatimat Abike, was to board a British Airways plane at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos when she was arrested with substances suspected to be cocaine. She tried to smuggle 1.740kg of cocaine into London in herbal syrup. “It was not her fist time of going to London and the drug was cleverly packed to avoid detection. It was packed in balloons and inserted in ten plastic containers of herbal syrup,” said Mitchell Ofoyeju, NDLEA Head of Public Affairs.

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Renowned Nigerian author Prof Chinua Achebe has published his long-awaited memoir, ‘There Was a Country’ in the United Kingdom on Thursday. The much anticipated work is about the brutal three-year Biafran war, in which he acted as roving cultural ambassador for the Biafran Republic when the south-eastern area tried to split from Nigeria in 1967. Prof Achebe has remained silent about his war experience for more than 40 years. The memoir is due to be released in Nigeria shortly and in the US on 11 October.

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One person was killed on Wednesday when two armed men attacked the permanent site of the University of Jos (UNIJOS) in Plateau State. The armed men opened fire on students. Two girls – Uju Imo and Esther Ugwu – both 100 level students of the English Department, were injured, according to the News Agency of Nigeria. Plateau police spokesman Emmanuel Abuwho who confirmed the incident, said angry students pursued and killed one of the attackers. The other was injured. The two injured students are receiving treatment at the Plateau State Specialist Hospital in Jos.

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Just weeks after a woman in Delta state reportedly gave birth to a horse-like creature in a church, yet another case of a bizarre birth has been recorded in Jigawa state. This week, a woman reportedly gave birth a neckless baby with goat-like legs. The story is indeed hard to believe but the photo evidence is compelling. This photo shows the baby with no defined facial features, translucent skin around his protruding stomach and feet that look like goat hoofs. The story is not confirmed, but that photograph is worth a thousands words.

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An Ikeja High Court in Lagos on Thursday sentenced an ex-police corporal, Ikechukwu Nwabueze, to death by hanging for killing a three- year-old girl, Kasufara Muritala. The Director of Public Prosecution, said that Nwabueze on April 5, 2009 at a police check-point at Ketu-Alapere, Lagos, shot at a Nissan Sunny car conveying the deceased and her parents. The incident occurred at Obanle Aro bus stop, Ketu-Alarape at about 9.30p.m when Kasufara and her parents were returning from a naming ceremony. She said the father of the deceased, Saliu Muritala, was hit on his hand while the little girl, who was sitting on the back seat with her mother, was shot in the head.

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The flooding of some states in Nigeria has taken a dangerous dimension. Apart from the loss of lives, property the people have to withstand, dangerous aquatic predators have now vacated their natural habitat and relocated to the streets of Makurdi. The crocodile in this picture was spotted moving about in the waters in Makurdi, the capital of Benue state. We call on the Government through appropriate agencies like  National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to please speed up their efforts in evacuating stranded Nigerians and find an immediate and lasting solution to this problem of flooding.

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How do you feel about the news that made headlines in the country this week? What other stuff happened that you would like to share?

Have a great weekend!